The Visible Woman...May 1, 2003

so little time

I think when I get up 'I have this day to myself.' But...I have a lunch date. It's late (at 1pm) so I figure I've got time to do my workout, be leisurely. FFP has me scan a layout of the building we are trying to rent. It takes me a couple of times to get it right and then he wants to annotate it. So that takes a little time. I waste some more somehow. FFP has to go off to get new keys for the place and such. Then the Internet connection drops. A trouble call to the cable people reveals 'a lot of calls from your area.' Isn't is surprising how ansty we get over having the Internet? If it isn't constantly available, we get antsy. I'm much worse about it than cable TV or the phone. Sad. Although FFP does rely on it to do business now so it worries me when we have an outage especially during business hours.

I leave FFP a note about that I've called Roadrunner (it will be working fine when he returns) and go to the club. I get in fifty minutes of aerobic work on the bike. I use the fact that I'm a little rushed for time as an excuse to not do abs and back.

I shower up and go have lunch with my buddy. We go to Mirabelle. I have a vegetarian Tuscan pie (with a small salad) and it's good and we talk about his trip to England. I get my books back and a camera I loaned him and see his pictures.

Then I do some shopping. Container store for a couple of things. (I buy some more small bubble, bubblewrap...the big bubbles dwarf the things I'm packing at Mom's.) Then Sam's for cheese of various kinds, toothpaste, video tape, turkey lunch meat, batteries. Just stocking up on a few things. Frankly, while shopping is necessary, I've decided it's also a waste of time. So I'm trying to get things to a point where I have food without going to the store and don't come up shy batteries, toilet paper or light bulbs and have to run out just for that.

I take that stuff home and go to Randall's for salad stuff, yogurt, salsa, soup, juice, some bananas, that sort of thing. Fruit and vegies have to be constantly replenished, of course.

Home again, I'm thinking 'where did the day go?' The mail comes. I do an RSVP, remember I need to get tickets for something, try the WEB site which fails, call the box office, update our calendar with these dates. Then I start trying to make an anniversary card for a couple of friends of ours...we will celebrate their fifth tomorrow with a nod to our twenty-seventh which is later in the month. Ever since they got married in our backyard in May 1998, we've felt we should celebrate together. Since the woman and I share a birthday, we feel the need for common celebrating.

Before I'm through with the card, it's time to make dinner. We thaw some catfish while I scan pictures for my card and then fry it up and have that with salad and a white wine. I have a big serving of the fried catfish with some bottled Tartar sauce and some bottled red sauce. But, um, I did eat salad! There is nothing on TV so I finish the card.

We are going to watch CSI but first we have to hear how Bush says the war is over (really?) but we flip to a Fellini movie until he's through and then watch CSI and Without a Trace.

There is so much more that I wanted to get done. I wanted to enter our April budget figures. (Bad month for spending for many individual reasons...fixing up the house, entertaining, eating out, dental work, yard work, almost summertime utilities, charity auctions and still paying COBRA for insurance. Perhaps not wanting to face it keeps me from entering the data? Nah, it's an exorcism to compile a spending report.)

I wanted to make progress on the office cleanup. (Yeah, right.) I wanted to write in here about a thing or two. I wanted to write about how all those miniatures make me feel and about my current reading habits. Tomorrow I have to take Dad to see about his hearing aids (follow-up visit) and I have to pick up our sub-woofer and I wanted to pack some more of my mom's things but we have to handle some financial stuff, too. So, yeah, tomorrow I won't get the office clean or probably get the budget handled or do any more of the writing I want to do. Hopefully, I will get my exercise routine done. I cannot keep up with my life. And I'm retired.

beside the door, a minature display and maybe inside it....

"Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another."

Anatole France, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

JUST TYPING
time slipping into the abyss
no boss to blame
no meetings
just you

Thursday, May 1, 2003

A Journal from Austin, Texas. A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.

			so little time I think when I get up 'I have this day to myself.' But...I have a lunch date. It's late (at 1pm) so I figure I've got time to do my workout, be leisurely. FFP has me scan a layout of the building we are trying to rent. It takes me a couple of times to get it right and then he wants to annotate it. So that takes a little time. I waste some more somehow. FFP has to go off to get new keys for the place and such. Then the Internet connection drops. A trouble call to the cable people reveals 'a lot of calls from your area.' Isn't is surprising how ansty we get over having the Internet? If it isn't constantly available, we get antsy. I'm much worse about it than cable TV or the phone. Sad. Although FFP does rely on it to do business now so it worries me when we have an outage especially during business hours. I leave FFP a note about that I've called Roadrunner (it will be working fine when he returns) and go to the club. I get in fifty minutes of aerobic work on the bike. I use the fact that I'm a little rushed for time as an excuse to not do abs and back. I shower up and go have lunch with my buddy. We go to Mirabelle. I have a vegetarian Tuscan pie (with a small salad) and it's good and we talk about his trip to England. I get my books back and a camera I loaned him and see his pictures. Then I do some shopping. Container store for a couple of things. (I buy some more small bubble, bubblewrap...the big bubbles dwarf the things I'm packing at Mom's.) Then Sam's for cheese of various kinds, toothpaste, video tape, turkey lunch meat, batteries. Just stocking up on a few things. Frankly, while shopping is necessary, I've decided it's also a waste of time. So I'm trying to get things to a point where I have food without going to the store and don't come up shy batteries, toilet paper or light bulbs and have to run out just for that. I take that stuff home and go to Randall's for salad stuff, yogurt, salsa, soup, juice, some bananas, that sort of thing. Fruit and vegies have to be constantly replenished, of course. Home again, I'm thinking 'where did the day go?' The mail comes. I do an RSVP, remember I need to get tickets for something, try the WEB site which fails, call the box office, update our calendar with these dates. Then I start trying to make an anniversary card for a couple of friends of ours...we will celebrate their fifth tomorrow with a nod to our twenty-seventh which is later in the month. Ever since they got married in our backyard in May 1998, we've felt we should celebrate together. Since the woman and I share a birthday, we feel the need for common celebrating. Before I'm through with the card, it's time to make dinner. We thaw some catfish while I scan pictures for my card and then fry it up and have that with salad and a white wine. I have a big serving of the fried catfish with some bottled Tartar sauce and some bottled red sauce. But, um, I did eat salad! There is nothing on TV so I finish the card. We are going to watch CSI but first we have to hear how Bush says the war is over (really?) but we flip to a Fellini movie until he's through and then watch CSI and Without a Trace. There is so much more that I wanted to get done. I wanted to enter our April budget figures. (Bad month for spending for many individual reasons...fixing up the house, entertaining, eating out, dental work, yard work, almost summertime utilities, charity auctions and still paying COBRA for insurance. Perhaps not wanting to face it keeps me from entering the data? Nah, it's an exorcism to compile a spending report.) I wanted to make progress on the office cleanup. (Yeah, right.) I wanted to write in here about a thing or two. I wanted to write about how all those miniatures make me feel and about my current reading habits. Tomorrow I have to take Dad to see about his hearing aids (follow-up visit) and I have to pick up our sub-woofer and I wanted to pack some more of my mom's things but we have to handle some financial stuff, too. So, yeah, tomorrow I won't get the office clean or probably get the budget handled or do any more of the writing I want to do. Hopefully, I will get my exercise routine done. I cannot keep up with my life. And I'm retired.
	beside the door, a minature display and maybe inside it.... "Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another." Anatole France, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

	JUST TYPING time slipping into the abyss no boss to blame no meetings just you